Natural Science Forum / Earth Science / Geology / March 2004

Comments welcome.
Meridiani Planum as an Ancient Bacteria Sponge Ecosystem
The first part deals with the methods used to arrive at
the conclusion that Meridiani Planum on Mars was the site

I have been reading this discussion here for a while.
It appears rather prejudiced discussion to me.
It doesn't make sense to try to get the whole picture at once.
It is Mars not earth. Processes are or can be different because of the

US News & World Report,
(http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040308/biztech/8petroleum.htm)
Reuters and others are warning about the "oil worker shortage" again.
The laast two times (1998,2000) I read such warnings in the Wall

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/src-awr030504.php
The catastrophe that extinguished the dinosaurs and other animal species, 65
million years ago also brought dramatic changes to the vegetation. In a
study presented in latest issue of the journal Science, the ...

Below are few excerpts from a 12-page American Institute of Physics
survey
just published:
"Geoscience Job Market Good, but Perceived as Bad

I pose a question for all of you that post on this forum: are any of
you going to talk real science? All I see are people making claims
and then other people saying that the person is a fraud. Now I
understand that this is a difficult place to offer evidence for your

For what it's worth I would like to address this subject from a passed
interest in the 'birth of life'. Some of my comments may contain obsolete or
downright false information form bad recollection.
Virus is the smallest expression of life, but it is still associated to the

I have a question regarding the tectonics of N-Z
The Tonga-Kermadec boundary is a subduction zone with an island arc
system. Farther South, it runs into New-Zealand and becomes a complex
boundary with a transform.

George wrote:
Or perhaps you could just point me towards come good
Mississippian-aged
outcrops, if any?

Was that it?
The splits and cracks angled  in 120 degrees is obviously shrinkage ...
(cooling/shrinking of columnar-basalts creates the same 120 angle).
Calciumsulfates has more than one possibility ( hydrates, semihydrates,

My daughters boyfriend brought a "stone" he'd found on a building site (in
Hampshire UK). It was white/cream in colour, about 2/3 the size of a hens
egg, and it was much heavier than I expected it to be for its size. I said
it's probably got an iron core or something, and hit it ...

Any good survey/introductory papers or textbooks on
concretion genesis?  Googling finds a lot of superficial
descriptions, but nothing really at the right level.
For example, what parameters govern their shape, size?  What

Hi All...
I'm a current resident of Northern Californa who is soon to be
relocated to the Phoenix Metro area of Arizona.
I was wondering if anyone could point me to a decent layman's introduction

Dear geologist
Just to make sure that everyone notice, Thomas Lee Elifrits has spoken for
all of us. How do you like your new opinion about things?
Best Carsten

Swiss geologists were once famed for making geology with binoculars. Of
course, it was (and still is) completely unfair. I propose now the
"Martian hammer", which does not even need a mountain to climb upon to
determine rocks and minerals and chemical compositions (and beetles) from